--- title: "Uber Eats Mocked for Grotesque AI-Generated Food Pictures on Menu" description: "Uber Eats seemingly published a restaurant's menu with food photos that were cooked up using some sort of AI algorithm." date: "2023-12-02" modified: "2023-12-02" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/uber-eats-ai-generated-food-menu" categories: - "Food" - "Future Society" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "food" - "the digest" - "uber eats" --- # Uber Eats Mocked for Grotesque AI-Generated Food Pictures on Menu ![]() *\Image: Roma Pizza/Online Boy\* ## Fake Pizza Pie As the web continues to fill up with bottom-tier AI-generated content — see our reporting this week that [*Sports Illustrated* had been publishing]() articles by fictional authors with AI-generated headshots — here's a new one: Uber Eats seemingly publishing a restaurant's menu with, instead of real photos of the food, ones that were cooked up using some sort of AI system. The situation was [spotted by X-formerly-Twitter personality Online Boy](), who noticed that the online Uber Eats menu for a restaurant called Roma Pizza, in New York City, appeared to have used AI to generate pictures of its cuisine, resulting in monstrosities such as this: ![]() And this, with the AI seemingly confusing a "pizza pie" with the dessert version: ![]() And this, which is just deeply unsettling in a way that we can't quite put our finger on: ![]() ## That's AImore Condemnation was swift. "Impressive example of Uber Eats doing more work to deliver an inarguably worse experience," [wrote one onlooker](). "Welcome to the future of AI powered experiences." Online Boy followed up by [calling the restaurant](), who said they were aware of the situation and that "someone else" had handled the content on their Uber Eats page. "We are in touch with everyone trying to get that all... it's a thing," a Roma employee told him. It sounds like the restaurant is still trying to figure out what happened, but the AI-generated images have since disappeared from the site's Uber Eats menu — though some AI-looking monstrosities are currently still live on the eatery's Seamless page. "A guy from Tony’s named Sal called me back 5 minutes later and said he was very confused what was happening and that he didn’t know what AI was," Online Boy [explained in a followup](). "I tried to explain it and he just said 'I don’t know about this stuff, but I didn’t approve these images.'" **More on food:** [*Cursed Tech Turns Plastic Waste Into Edible Food*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()